Foreign currency assets down by $25.5b in October: HKMA

The decrease was attributed to the sale of US$ under currency board arrangements.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) revealed that foreign currency assets declined by $25.5b whilst the Hong Kong dollar went down by $21.2b.

HKMA said the foreign currency assets were impacted by US dollars sale under the currency board arrangements whilst the Hong Kong dollar assets decline was due to mark-to-market revaluation on Hong Kong equities. 

The overall assets of the exchange fund were at $3.9t, which is $46.7b lower than in September 2022.

Monetary Base at $1.3t in October, which was down 1.5% from September.

"The decline was mainly due to the purchase of HK dollars under the Currency Board arrangements and a decrease in the outstanding amount of Certificates of Indebtedness," it said.

Banking assets amount fell by $31.1b or 1.5% to $2.097t "under the Currency Board arrangements and the redemption of Certificates of Indebtedness."